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Month: July 2016

It never fails every time an African-American athlete receives a notable contract the media immediately ask, how they plan to spend their money. Why? Most recently C.J. McCollum of the Portland Trailblazers was asked what his purchases would be with his increase in salary. Dirk Nowitziki and Kevin Love received notable contracts and neither of them was asked how they plan to spend their money.

This question assumes that all black athletes come from poverty and have no desire to do anything except spend their money without any forethought. It is these kinds of questions that continue to shape the opinions about people and the media is the primary source of this kind of mind control. An increase in salary doesn’t mean that the person is going to go out and purchase a bigger house, a fancier car or throw it away gambling. It annoys me that the media puts these young men on the spot every single time their contract changes financially.

The media makes a point of highlighting the salaries of athletes, which I feel is unprofessional and classless. In the real world, salaries are never discussed and it’s really taboo because it can create animosity in the workplace. I understand that professional athletes are bound by their respective collective bargaining agreements and discussions regarding salaries are common but the media shines a spotlight on the athletes to a degree that is borderline sinister and mean spirited. How an athlete plans to spend his money is nobody’s business, especially not the media, who is lying in wait for the athletes to make a mistake so that they can say how the person didn’t deserve the money.

The next time an athlete is asked that question, he should asked the reporter how he spent his last raise.

Let me start by saying that police brutality is not a new problem. It has been around since the free world realized that there had to be some kind of law and order or we would end up in lawless societies. What came with the establishment of “lawmen” was an abuse of power by some men who never had any power until they were given a “pistol” and a badge. This bad behavior is perpetuated by the few and that has never stopped. There will always be bad apples in any organization but in the police force, where there is a reasonable expectation of protection it can’t be tolerated or accepted.

Fast forward to today and why we’re seeing so much of it. The answer is simple, we’re living in a technologically advanced society where anyone with a phone, tablet or camera has the ability to record these acts of violence and murders by some police officers. Prior to advancements in technology, these police officers were getting away with murder, no pun intended, but their bad behavior is being exposed exponentially and they don’t know how to handle it nor does the rest of society when we see the graphic images.

There are over 800,000 police officers across the nation and the majority of them are not bad. Unfortunately, the violent acts of a few have cast a shadow of doubt on the many and it’s not right to judge every police officer by the bad officers who should never have been hired on the police force.

Several groups are saying that communities should establish committees to oversee the police departments. A number of communities already have these oversight committees in place and we’re still seeing this kind of police brutality so that’s not the answer. Actually, I believe the answer is relatively simple and those of you reading my article right now are probably shaking your heads and going, she’s kidding right?

I’m not kidding. The answer to stopping police brutality, is restructuring the process for becoming a police officer and it has to start with: “How To Weed You Out, Not How You Get In.” When individuals apply for the FBI, CIA, Navy Seals, Delta Force and other elite law enforcement agencies, their goal is to weed the bad apples out, which should be the same principle applied for community police forces. The background and mental health checks are extensive, it’s my understanding that scenarios on how to handle difficult situations require exceptional critical thinking skills and the list goes on. The weeding out process that takes place with these elite law enforcement agencies must be pushed down to community law enforcement agencies. Again, becoming a police officer should be about “how to weed you out, not how we let you in.”

Another way to stop this criminal behavior is they should be terminated and stripped of all of their benefits immediately. It is not enough to terminate them from the police force there must be other consequences that come along with it so that the next officer thinks long and hard before engaging in criminal conduct.

We have seen time and time again, where it is almost impossible to convict a policeman of murder when the people on the jury are staring the evidence in the face. It is time to pass a law that all acts of violence perpetrated by a police officer are to be tried in federal court. It is time to take the trials for police officers out of the hands of ordinary citizens because it is obvious that the average Joe is just not capable of making a reasonable decision.

I’m going to digress for a moment, if anyone has ever sat in a jury pool you know that most of the people called to serve are not the sharpest tools in she shed. I recall going to do my civic duty and when I saw the people in the pool and listened to how they responded to simple questions or watched how they followed directions, I thought to myself, “wow, if you are a jury of my peers, the justice system is in trouble.” It is truly frightening to see and listen to some of the people selected to serve on juries. A lot of them are just not ready for prime time, I’m sorry but it’s the truth. Hence, the reason police officers are acquitted time and time again for murder and it’s time for that to stop and the only way to do that is to remove these trials out of the local jurisdictions and send these cases to federal court to be tried. Federal prosecutors are much better equipped to handle high profile cases and the jurors are sharper and tend to be able to process what is being presented better.

In summary in order to stop police brutality we need to do the following:

Change the hiring process to include more comprehensive mental health testing, more extensive background checks, include critical thinking scenarios etc.

The hiring process must be patterned after more elite law enforcement agencies like the FBI, Navy Seals, CIA, Delta Force etc.

The hiring process should be more about weeding people out, not than letting them in.

Terminate officers for misconduct and strip them all benefits immediately.

Must have completed more than a high school education. At a minimum anyone applying to the police force must have completed one (1) year of college.

Images of Dylan Noble and Alton Sterling both unarmed and killed by the police.

God gave his life willingly as a symbol of how much he loves mankind. He was well aware during His death of what would come to pass by way of man’s hatred because he experienced it at the highest level.

Although 99.9% of my blog is about sports, there are times when I will write about issues that are confronting us as a nation. The media is a huge factor when it comes to stirring the pot and keeping anger, hatred and racism alive and well in this country. Police brutality is nothing new but the media needs a news story to sensationalize for ratings and they need a mechanism that will continue to widen the gap of racial division in this country. Does the ugly face of racism exist? Of course it does and guest what? It will always exist in some people because there are those people who can’t live without needing someone or something to hate in order to make themselves feel better. I say to those people, go with God because He has something in store for you.

The media thrives off of this ugly underbelly. The media has an underlying agenda and that is to keep up the racial tensions, strife and resentment in this country. Have you ever asked yourself why are there so many images of black people being killed by police officers and why there are so few images of the same thing happening to white people? It makes you wonder if people of other ethnicities are being killed in the same manner. Well, let me tell you they are but the media uses selective judgment of what images to show because it would not be to their advantage to show these images of police brutality against white Americans because they could not continue to fan the fire of racial divide.

It is the media that caused Micah Johnson to snap. It’s my belief that this young man already had some underlying mental health issues that were compounded by the negative images he was seeing and as a result he snapped. Not one time did the media investigate and report on his mental frame of mind. Instead they labeled him as being with “Black Lives Matter,” which he was not. Keep in mind that the Sandy Hooks shooter, Atlanta church shooter, the Colorado theatre shooter, the Columbine shooters and most recently the mother, in Texas, that gunned down her two daughters in the street to punish her husband were all labeled by the media as having mental problems. On Monday, July 11, 2016, Larry Darnell Gordon, took a service revolver from a bailiff while he was in the courtroom, killed two bailiffs and wounded a police officer before he was shot and killed by a police officer. How many of you saw the story about Dr. Rachel Wellner, the cancer surgeon, who clipped an NYPD officer because he was giving her a ticket? Dr. Wellner to this day remains defiant and believes she was right. All of these individuals are white so the media down played how they labeled them and how much coverage their crimes received. Ask yourselves why the selective reporting? A person with a gun killing people, is a psycho with a gun killing people regardless of the ethnicity. However the media doesn’t play fair when it comes to maintaining their goal of keeping hatred, anger and racial divide alive and well in this country.

Dylan Noble a 19 year old young white man in Fresno, California was shot four times and killed by the police during a routine traffic stop and his parents have asked for the records associated with his shooting because they’re wondering just like the family of Alton Sterling how something like this could happen to an unarmed individual. Did the media splash this young man’s face and murder all of the news? No they did not and that’s because they don’t want Americans to see the ugly truth about some police officers. The media’s selective reporting is causing a lot of problems this country is encountering. For instance, they reported that “Chick-fil-a” required it’s employees to wear “Back the Blue” t-shirts, which had people up in arms and ready to boycott the entire company. What they failed to report was that this was only one restaurant. “Chick-fil-a” is a national chain and the restaurants are franchised so that was one owner but it doesn’t represent the entire chain and that wasn’t done by all of the chains. This is the manipulation of the media and all of us need to think long and hard about the judgments we make based on the misinformation disseminated by the media.

The media no longer reports the news. They tell half-truths, sensationalize stories for ratings, spew unwarranted opinions and try to get society to believe what they’re saying, which is a big problem, especially when there are so many small-minded people who are lead by the opinions of others.

If you are a true believer of the Word of God: All Lives Matter and as soon as we take up that cross we can start to make real strides toward change. The NAACP made change because it was about people of color. Yes, it grew out of a need to assist black people confront racism in this country but ultimately a greater good was served.

There is an old saying that goes like this: “Be aware of the dog bringing the Bone.” This saying sums up the media perfectly.

This blog is coming on the hills of the announcement by Kevin Durant that he has decided to join the Warriors. A number of people like Stephen A. Smith have harsh comments to say because of their bewilderment of his decision. I am not surprised by his decision but I’m disappointed because I wanted him to be the example of “staying the course” with your team when it’s a good squad and winning in spite of but it was not to be.

Unlike other highly charged “sports commentators” my approach to his decision will come from a different perspective. Everyone must keep in mind that Durant is chasing the almighty championship ring and that is what drove him to make this decision. I think free agency is great and players should be given the opportunity to explore what’s out there but at what cost to a team and fans that have been extremely loyal and supportive? Also, Durant was playing on one of the best teams in the League with another future “Hall of Fame” player in Russell Westbrook, all he needed to do was stay the course. The Thunder team that lost to the Warriors was actually better than the Warriors and they proved that when up 3 –1 but couldn’t close it out. Durant and Westbrook made bad mental decisions in those final games which resulted in the Warriors winning the series. With time and more maturity they would have learned not to repeat the same mistakes, no one will know what could have been. That which made KD falter in the Thunder series will show itself with the Warriors, believe that.

NBA basketball has become difficult to watch because the franchise players don’t have the inner fortitude of staying connected with a team and playing through the struggles like Jordan, Magic, Kobe, Zeke, Olajuwon, Bird etc. instead they continue to opt for instant gratification. Mark my word, this decision will be a costly one.

The basketball world is saying, well LeBron did it but the difference was LeBron was not playing with a “Hall of Fame” player on any of those Cleveland teams nor did he go to a team that was winning. When LeBron went to Miami that team sucked. Once King James made the move to Miami, the team started winning and that’s because the talent on the Miami team was better than the talent on the Cleveland teams and better coaches. Also, LeBron needed to be around seasoned players that could elevate him to the next level. Guess what? KD will not be in the company of seasoned players that can elevate him to the next level. He’s going into a situation whereby everyone is young, their chemistry is in synch and the Warriors house was built around them.

Does this move by Warriors management say that they don’t believe in the players that won 73 games and the championship in 2015? Contrary to what people say, chemistry plays a very important role in a team’s ability to win and believe me it’s hard to win 50 games, let alone 73. For all of the people that think, it’s a “rap” and the Warriors are going to run over all of the teams in the League and win another championship next year because they’ve added KD to roster, it will not happen and he will become a “traveling minstrel” like so many others without a championship ring.

Reggie Miller said it best: “KD is giving up his legacy to chase cheap jewelry.” KD you may have patterned your one legged jump shoot after Dirk Nowitzki, unfortunately you didn’t pattern your staying power after him.